Arteta wants Arsenal’s ‘big players’ to produce the goods against Slavia
Mikel Arteta is well aware results are how he will be judged at Arsenal and called on the “big players” at the club to step up in tonight’s Europa League quarter-final second leg at Slavia Prague.
Leicester and Rangers have already been knocked out of the competition by the Czech outfit this season and Tomas Holes' stoppage-time equaliser at the Emirates last week has given them a crucial away goal in the tie.
With Arsenal ninth in the Premier League table, winning the Europa League is their best option to qualify for Europe next season and to give the Spaniard another achievement to point towards as progress after almost 18 months in the job.
He said: “Whether you're doing a good job or not, to judge it externally is only going to be judged with results. Internally, you know what you are doing and you can have many different ways of judging that but at the end of the day, externally results are the only important thing.”
Defeat for Arsenal in Prague and an exit at the quarterfinal stage would raise questions about Arteta’s future but the 39-year-old added: “The game can put us in a position to go into the semi-final of a European competition. This is exactly where this club has to be and that's why we have to do our best to earn that."
"We've shown that in big games, big players have to step in and create the magic moments and you need that, so let's hope that we can have them," Arteta added.
"It doesn't matter who it is but someone has to create when the team needs those moments.
"We have moments in the season where it has been the senior players and then other moments where it has been the young players."